The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: her guests and her footmen, and even the engineer
Anisimov who felt peevish towards me. As for
Varinka's father, with his home-made boots and
his kind smile, so like her own, I felt a sort of ten-
derness for him that was almost rapture.
"After supper I danced the promised quadrille
with her, and though I had been infinitely happy
before, I grew still happier every moment.
"We did not speak of love. I neither asked
myself nor her whether she loved me. It was
quite enough to know that I loved her. And I had
The Forged Coupon |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: candidate? He is depriving us of our liberty! I ask you: is it proper
that the chairman of our choice should tell us to nominate, by rising
or sitting, inspectors of the ballot thus forced upon us? Have we any
liberty of choice? If I were proposed, I believe all present would
rise out of politeness; indeed, we should all feel bound to rise for
one another, and I say there can be no choice where there is no
freedom of action."
"He is right," said the sixty auditors.
"Therefore, let us each write two names on a ballot, and the two
gentlemen who are elected will then feel themselves the real choice of
this assembly; they will have the right, conjointly with our honorable
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